Hepatitis B Decision Tool

What is Hepatitis B?

Hepatitis B is a liver infection caused by the Hepatitis B virus (HBV). Hepatitis B is transmitted when blood, semen, or another body fluid from a person infected with the Hepatitis B virus enters the body of someone who is not infected. This can happen through sexual contact, sharing needles, syringes, or other drug-injection equipment, or from mother to baby at birth.

For some people, hepatitis B is an acute, or short-term, illness but for others, it can become a long-term, chronic infection. Risk for chronic infection is related to age at infection: approximately 90% of infected infants become chronically infected, compared with two to six percent of adults. Chronic Hepatitis B can lead to serious health issues, like cirrhosis or liver cancer. The best way to prevent Hepatitis B is by getting vaccinated.

About the tool

This tool is developed for patients to help calculate their own chronic hepatitis B risk for liver disease according to factors such as the endemicity of the country of origin, age, presence of cirrhosis, liver enzyme and viral load levels.
The tool also highlights key recommendations from the World Health Organization chronic hepatitis B treatment guideline (2015). The cumulative disease outcomes are based on a mathematical simulation model developed by Dr. Mehlika Toy from the Asian Liver Center, Stanford School of Medicine. These are the links to the articles on the mathematical modeling and population health in various endemic countries: high endemicity, intermediate endemicity, low endemicity, treatment, Markov model